The Perfect Time To Pray | Preston Morrison | Gateway Church

if you've got a bible i want you to turn to luke chapter 15. we'll get there about halfway through the message uh these two weeks this week and next week we're going to take a little bit of a break from a a series after that we're going to start a series that will pretty much go nearly the rest of the year called resilient and we're going to begin preparing for what we believe god wants to do in and through our church in 2022 we're going to start preparing in two weeks one of the ways you know you actually believe god wants to use you to do something significant is not how you talk about it it's how you prepare for it so we're gonna take three full months to get you ready to steward what god wants to do through you next year okay but before that we're gonna talk about one of my favorite subjects on the planet we're gonna spend two weeks talking about prayer the title of this weekend's message is the perfect time to pray when is the perfect time to pray okay i knew you'd say that but if i followed you around what would i think your life was communicating about when the perfect time to pray is would it be at the dinner table would it be in church would it be before important meetings okay we all know the right answer is the perfect time to pray is all the time okay here's the real answer to the question that our lives are meant to embody as followers of jesus christ the perfect time to pray is right now now now now now now now you want to do this for the rest of the message now now and if you look around at the landscape of things in the day in which we live it's pretty easy to make the case that right now is the perfect time to pray notice i didn't title this message the perfect time to post it's entitled the perfect time to pray now is not the perfect time to talk about everything that's going on now is the perfect time to talk to god about everything that's going on and hear his response psalm 61 verse 1 gives us a beautiful picture of prayer in an overwhelming time psalm 61 verse 1 and verse 2. oh god listen to my cry hear my prayer from the ends of the earth i cry to you for help when my heart is overwhelmed okay i want you to be honest how many of us get a little bit overwhelmed every once in a while when we look at the news and we see everything that's going on it just seems like every day the hits just keep on coming right it's a reminder this is the perfect time to pray now i don't often do this but i want to do it for this message i want to give you the most robustly complicated theological definition for the word prayer so that you can be confused you ready here's the most robustly complicated theological definition for the word prayer i can give you prayer is conversing with god just let that set in for a second the god of the universe has made it possible for you to converse with him anytime you want think about the last time you were in trouble maybe uh husbands uh your wife was at uh something with her friends and you're trying to cook something and the light's on fire and you you pick up the phone to call someone or maybe you're stuck on the side of the road because your car breaks down think about the last time you felt you were in seriously in serious trouble who did you call one of the things we have to remember is the first person we call in crisis is a declaration that we believe they're the person who can do the most about our problem so here would be my second question what percentage of the time when you feel you're in serious trouble is god the first person you pick up the phone to talk to my hope by the end of this little two-week message isn't just that you would see prayer differently my hope is that you would see prayer not as a last resort but as your best option psalm 55 verse 1 open your ears god to my prayer don't pretend you don't hear me knocking come close and whisper your answer watch these next words i really need you at its core prayer is a declaration from one of god's children to god that says i really need you right now god i need you would you come close and whisper your answer to me prayer is conversing with god and i'm going to give you two things in this first message just to kind of refresh i know many of us know these things but as i was telling the lord about this this message i said lord a lot of these people know these things and i felt like this was the response present until they do these things you're going to keep talking about these things i'm going to give you two things i know for many might be just a refresher but i trust the holy spirit will speak to you and the goal is that the holy spirit would take you to a deeper place in your own prayer life with the lord here's point number one the best thing about prayer is being heard the best thing about prayer is the god of the universe hears you now the goal for this first point is micah 7 verse 7. as for me i look to the lord for help i wait confidently for god to save me and my god will certainly hear me that's the goal that you are reminded that god absolutely positively hears you every time you pray but see many of us because we don't see god respond the way we want him to respond after we pray just start to draw a connection god must not be hearing me when i pray nothing could be further from the truth god hears you every time you pray and you must be certain about this because here's what will happen if you are uncertain about whether or not god hears you when you pray you'll stop praying you'll begin to believe what's the point god certainly hears i don't know if you are aware of this but one of the deepest human needs is being heard and i can prove it to you long before you learned how to talk you learned how to be heard and all of the parents of infants said amen then babies don't know how to talk yet but they know how to get your attention when they want something when that diaper of yours at two months old was burning your flesh did you do you did not give a soliloquy to your mother and father why your diaper needed to be changed what did you do you let yourself be heard when you were craving the bottle what did you do before you could talk you let yourself be heard isn't it interesting that before humans learn language they still knew how to be heard why because deep inside of all of us is a need to be heard you may be married to somebody that has fits of emotional outburst let me tell you why it's not because they're bad it's because the little boy the little girl inside of them feels like they are struggling to be heard and so like a two-month-old they let it rip why something's going on and they're trying to communicate i need to be heard right now i feel unseen and unheard please see me please hear me all of us have that desire one of the ways you know you're loved is when you're heard isn't that what we were doing when we were babies i mean honestly if i was over at your house and you have a two-month-old and your two-month-old from their bedroom starts screaming because it's time to eat which one of us is gonna be quicker to jump up and go do something about it don't look at me it's gonna be you why because you have a measure of love that i've not yet experienced for your child okay think as a parent when your child is trying to be heard how many times do you tune them out now go beyond your parenting abilities to the perfect parent the god of the universe you could never convince me that your heavenly father ever tunes your voice out because he doesn't want to hear what you have to say let's kind of theologically though establish a bit of a foundation so that this isn't just some thought or feeling that you have that god hears you three things first god can hear isaiah 59 verse 1 listen the lord's arm is not too weak to save you nor is his ear to death to hear you call god can hear here's the second thing he will listen god will listen second chronicles 7 14 a very appropriate passage of scripture for the day in which we live if my people god says who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways i will hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and restore their land now we're going to talk more about this next week that there are prerequisites for god to pay close attention to what i say in other words there are some things that i can do that get in the way of him actively listening we'll talk about that next week but the point this week is god will listen then the third thing he is listening psalm 18 verse 6. david says i call to god i cry to god to help me from his palace he hears my call my cry brings me right into his presence there's that picture like the crying baby in the other room god is a perfect daddy who runs into the room when one of his babies cries my cry brings me right into his presence a private audience i remember years ago i was with some young ministers from churches around the country and most of them were from really big churches uh several of them had grown up there been there many years and one of them goes hey let's play a game let's see who can come up with the most famous person's phone number in their cell phone and so everyone's kind of going through their phone and as i started to go to my phone i felt the holy spirit convict me president don't you play this game and i could play the game i mean there there are a couple of kind of impressive phone numbers in my phone presents don't you play this game so they start going around then they ask me and i just kind of make something up and i don't even you know show the phone number and while they're continuing the game i felt the holy spirit say preston is it impressive that you have someone's famous someone who is famous you have their phone number i'm like well i don't know it sounds like it is he said okay and he he just said a name probably the most impressive name in my phone that we would all know he goes dial him up right now go ahead call up his number call him right now he said i'm not calling that guy right now that the holy spirit said why not i said because i don't know him we just had to talk one time so that's right just because you have their number doesn't mean you have intimate relationship with them preston the most impressive number you have in your phone is mine not theirs and you can call me any time you want okay see a lot of us think about prayer as some religious thing not a relational thing that the god of the universe looks in your direction and says hey i want to talk i want to hear preston what you're feeling i want to hear what you have to say psalm 34 verse 17 the lord hears his people when they call to him for help now you might be thinking well preston it doesn't seem like god listens to me all that much when i talk to him okay let me just give you something to think about it might be entirely possible that the reason you don't feel like god is listening all the time is because most of what you talk about is what you want so switch it up don't just talk to god when you want something or need something talk to him just because you want to talk imagine in my marriage if i approached my relationship with holly the way most of us approach our relationship to god and prayer imagine if the only time i talked to holly was when i needed something just picked her up from the airport this morning she hasn't been home for a week can you imagine if when i picked her up from the airport the first words out of my mouth as she goes to give me a kiss i stop her and say hey the house is a complete mess it's been me and the boys and this is like a record what we have done to this house the last couple days i got to go to work you and the boy should probably go to work too can you imagine how that would go over can i just tell you you may not know my wife i wouldn't be here right now she wanted to give me a kiss and say i've missed you imagine if the first words out of my mouth were i need something from you yeah with god we do that all the time and for some reason we don't think it's inappropriate but in our marriages we would never do that okay why have we turned him into a genie when he is a personal relational god psalm 116 verse 1 i love the lord because he hears my voice it's a relational thing i love the lord because he hears my voice and my prayer for mercy now watch this picture because he bends down to listen i will pray as long as i have breath when was the last time that you started to converse with god that you got the picture that he was bending over peering over the balcony of heaven to get his ear close to your mouth just because he wanted to hear what his little girl his little boy had to say every time you talk to him that needs to be the picture you have of him and david says because he bends down to listen i will pray as long as i have breath another way to say it now is the perfect time to pray because now is the time he will bend down come near to me to hear my cry that leads us to the second point the most important part of prayer is hearing the best part is being heard it's an amazing thing that the god of the universe hears me when i talk and he wants to hear me talk but the most important part of prayer is actually hearing not talking one of the biggest mistakes you can make in your prayer life is not making enough time to listen the most important time of your prayer isn't when you're using your mouth it's when you're using your ears i was with a friend a couple of days ago and we were right in the car and he asked me a question and like typical preachers i took up too many minutes to give him the answer to his question about three minutes into me answering his question i just felt the holy spirit say stop talking and ask him a question this is a moment it's an opportunity so i stopped and i asked the question and man i mean he he came alive i'm i'm sure he was really ecstatic to hear the answer i was giving him but he acted some kind of way when i gave him a chance to talk and as i listened to his heart i felt like we got a little bit closer okay how much time do you spend in your prayer time listening well president i don't feel like i hear god speak well we're going to talk about that but principally speaking do you make time to listen one of the reasons i tell you why it's so important to take notes during a sermon no matter what church you're at no matter who's speaking is because you're sending a message to god i'm here to hear you speak and when you speak i take it so seriously i'm gonna write it down okay who do you think he's gonna be more prone to speak the most to the person who doesn't care when he talks or the person who is obsessed every time he talks the most important part of prayer is hearing not talking a big part of spiritual maturity and relational maturity is knowing when to stop talking have you ever put your foot in your mouth have you ever choked on your foot one of my favorite verses for years back in the day in dallas when i was on staff at gateway was even a fool is thought to be wise when silent why because every time we talk we run the risk of putting our foot in our mouth that's why it's actually a really good thing that we would stop ourselves from talking from time to time and simply draw near to god to hear what he desires to say ecclesiastes 5 1 really points this out in regards to the house of the lord but here's what i would say i think this principle applies every time we go into the presence of god not just in the house of god but also in the secret place ecclesiastes 5 1 as you enter the house of god keep your ears open preston and your mouth shut this is not mean talk this is a loving heads up i i wonder how many times i've been so busy talking to god when i'm in his presence that i was keeping him from saying something he wanted to say now there are lots of instances of this in scripture but i want to show you one luke chapter 15 if you turn there we're going to read it together starting in verse 17. this is about halfway through the story of the prodigal son and we're going to pick up with the prodigal who's in the pig pen who's come to his senses and realized something's off here this is stupid i've blown my father's inheritance i i would rather be a slave in my father's house than be out here in this pig pen so watch what he does next luke 15. let's read it together starting in verse 17. when the prodigal finally came to his senses he said to himself at home even the hired servants have enough food to spare and here i'm dying of hunger i will go home to my father and say father i have sinned against both heaven and you i am no longer worthy of being called your son please take me on as a hired servant okay so get the picture the prodigal is crafting a speech that he hopes will cause him to be received once again by his father even though he just wasted his entire heritage inheritance verse 20. so he returned home to his father i love this part and while he was still a long way off his father saw him coming how did this father see him coming because he'd been looking for him the entire time filled with love and compassion the father ran to his son embraced him and kissed him his son began the speech to him father i have sinned against both heaven and you and i am no longer worthy of being called your son but his father said to a servant so notice there was more to his speech so get the picture the father of the prodigal says sounds great kid you need to shut your mouth because what you're saying is fine but you need to hear what i have to say i wonder if god ever does that with me in our quiet time like my my spanish teacher sierra le bocca por favor preston but his father said to the servants quick bring the finest robe in the house and put it on him get a ring for his finger and sandals for his feet and kill the calf we've been fattening we must celebrate with a feast for the son of mine was dead and now he has returned to life he was lost but now he's found so the party began when did the party begin when the son shut his mouth and let his daddy talk ha the party doesn't start until i stop talking and my daddy has a chance to speak and here's one of the things i've learned in my own walk with him there's never been a time where what i had to say was better than what he had to say this is one of the best pictures in scripture the most important part of prayer isn't talking it's hearing it's listening isaiah 55 3 come to me god says with your ears wide open listen and you will find life now i want to give you three things kind of three reasons that i'll call them myths that in my opinion keep people from having consistent prayer time conversational time with the lord here's the first myth pastors are the hearers not people like me present people like you are the hearers you're good at hearing god people like me aren't okay this actually it was for a season the way god operated deuteronomy chapter 5 verse 27 listen to the way the israelites talked to moses they'd just seen the thunder the lightning they'd seen the show go down it scared them and listen to what they say to moses about hearing god they say go go yourself and listen to what the lord our god says then come and tell us everything he tells you and we will listen and obey the israelites say to moses hey that's not what we want right there we don't want to climb up and go get a word from the lord so you go do it come back down tell us what to do we will listen and obey unfortunately far too many followers of jesus christ are still following this model but again i say and i say this multiple times a year one of the most important things that happened at the cross that day was when the veil was torn and every follower of jesus christ every son or daughter of the most high god was thereby granted unfettered unbridled access to the presence of the one true god you don't have to come through me i don't want you to let me just say it this way the preacher works best when he is a confirming voice not the only voice i was never meant to be god's voice in your life god wants to talk to you about you it's one of his favorite things of course there are times i hear on your behalf but i don't hear for you that's your job god wants to talk directly to you about you here's the second myth i can't hear okay brenson if if lots of people can hear well i can't i don't have the ability to hear now i wish i had the time to read you the story of samuel one of the best stories about someone like this who says i can't hear but they're actually already hearing samuel is awakened in the middle of the night he hears a voice he thinks it's eli the high priest so he runs into eli's room and says what do you want why'd you wake me up in essence after a couple of times eli says that wasn't me obviously that was god go back in and tell him you're listening okay samuel was hearing god's voice he just didn't know it was god and let me just say if you're someone who says i i struggle to hear god's voice preston i don't know how to hear god's voice i want to lovingly push back and say you do know how to hear god's voice than you already are think about what scripture is scripture is god's words to you to me think about how how romantically brilliant this is as a father if i knew i was about to die and i had 30 days to live i know it's a bit of a morbid thought but i'll tell you exactly what i would begin to do i'd start writing writing daily letters to each of my children and to my wife sorry not to you i don't have enough time but i would write every day a letter to them a personalized letter to my wife and my three children so that after i'm gone if they ever wanted to hear my voice they could put it by their nightstand and if riley woke up in the middle of the night crying wanting to hear daddy's voice she could pick up my words read them and receive them in her heart all over again the bible isn't some religious book meant to to collect dust next to your bed it's meant to be something you can't live without they are your daddy's words and if you want to hear him open it up he speaks every time we do jesus in john chapter 10 verse 27 said it like this my sheep listen your translations say might say here my sheep hear my voice i know them and they follow me you see i don't hear god's voice because i'm a pastor i hear god's voice because i'm his child and if you are his child you are already hearing his voice you can hear here's the third myth and this one i kind of agree with it's hard to hear it's hard to hear i wish i had more time because one of the biggest things i hear as it relates to hearing god's voice is how do i know what's me and how do i know what's him because most of the time i hear it sounds like me well there's a reason for that because god speaks to your heart not to your head so imagine it's like he's typing on your heart of course the way you're gonna hear it is gonna sound a little bit like you because it's your heart he's speaking to but it is hard to hear hearing is a learned thing i don't know if you you know this but the nose and the ears continue to grow as we age anybody noticed that before here's what that means really good news for people like me my nose which is up at like a 60 degree angle for everyone to see up as i get older is only going to get longer like pinocchio i legitimately think it's one of the ways god made sure that i was always humble because if i ever preached a great message and i went out into the lobby he always makes sure something is hanging out of my nose okay your ears continue to grow physically but here's the goal spiritually they never stop growing hearing is a learned behavior something we have to practice and god wants to be heard listen to me closely especially if you don't think that you're good at hearing god god isn't trying to play games with you with his voice he's not the author of confusion he wants you to hear him isaiah 45 verse 18 i am the lord he says and there is no other i publicly proclaim bold promises i do not whisper obscurities in some dark corner god's not trying to make it hard to hear he wants to be heard now as i was praying over this first of two messages on prayer and we're going to talk about the how next week and for some of you i'm going to give you a completely different way to pray than maybe you've ever prayed before but as i was praying over this first part this week's message i felt like i got a picture for some of you it was like i saw you standing in front of this wall that you were just trying to bust through i mean that head first just crashing into this wall and it seemed like just from my vantage point that you thought faithfulness and perseverance were the key to seeing this wall come down so i mean i i'm not gonna lie you know me i'm the competitive semi-aggressive one so i see you crashing this wall i'm like that's it the end of the message we're gonna have an aggressive prayer time and we are going to pray those walls down like they were jericho let's go jesus i don't know about you but the lord does this with me occasionally where he just kind of chuckles and it's almost like he says oh sweet ignorant baby preston this isn't a wall to be torn down it's a door to be open and in this season of their lives the key i created to open this particular door is a new level of prayer i want you to bow your heads and close your eyes and we're just going to take both campuses we're going to take some time [Music] to converse with god [Music] we're not going to sing in this moment no one is we're gonna sit in his presence we're gonna listen it's what he has to say we're gonna talk to our heavenly father [Music] from the deepest place of our being [Music] holy spirit we acknowledge that right now is the perfect time to pray [Music] and i pray for everyone who can hear the sound of my voice that right now in this moment they would hear your voice even more clearly than they just heard mine for the last half hour you want to speak you are speaking [Music] and here we are your children speak to us [Music] spirit of the living gods speak [Music] even if they've never heard you say anything before today i pray right now in this moment [Music] it would be easier for them to hear than ever before holy spirit speak [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] so [Music] so [Music] [Music] so so and as though you were at a table for two at the back of a dimly lit restaurant and you started off your time with him at the table saying i want you to go first if there's anything you want to say to me you go first now he looks in your direction and says i want to hear from you if there's anything you want to tell me right now i want you to tell me if there's anything you want to ask me right now i want you to ask me [Music] just take a few moments and either respond to what you felt you heard him say even if you didn't feel like you heard him say anything that's okay don't beat yourself up stick with it now's your chance to tell him whatever you want to tell him let's spend a few moments talking to him sharing our hearts [Music] do [Music] do [Music] do [Music] [Music] do [Music] [Music] i don't want to interrupt your time but i want to ask you to stand good news is you can continue this conversation even after we're done my challenge to you is before you fall asleep tonight say something to him you've never said before one of the loudest messages i believe we send to god that we want to hear him speak we want to hear him say something we've never heard him say as we say something to him he's never heard us uh before you fall asleep tonight have a conversation with him you've never had before i hope you got the picture that the god of the universe every time you talk to him bends down to hear you speak [Music] i want to invite our alter ministry team to come forward and if you want to pray with somebody before you leave it's one of my favorite things that we do here if you need prayer for anything at all got some challenges going on maybe just lost the loved one if you just lost the job maybe you need god to come through in a particular area of your life [Music] if you have a prayer need at all we want to pray with you before you leave maybe you just want to stay here for a little bit you want to continue your conversation with the lord if you see somebody sit back down please be sensitive not to interrupt they're having a special moment with their god let me pray a blessing over you and will be dismissed god thank you for giving us the opportunity to hear the creator of the universe speak [Music] god i i don't ever want to get over the fact that you are a speaking god who loves to speak personally to me and us god i pray that all of us would be slower to post and quicker to pray i pray that this church would be known by you as a praying church a church obsessed with conversing with you [Music] a church obsessed with talking to you about everything that's going on before we talk to anybody else about how we feel about it god i pray over every person as they leave this place [Music] they would sense you chasing them everywhere they go i pray they would hear the volume of your of your voice louder than ever before and i pray that before they fall asleep tonight they would hear the god of the universe say something to them they've never heard before and lord i pray if there's anybody here who does not know you personally i pray that right now would be a holy moment for them to meet you personally but even if they choose not to god i pray you chase them tonight before they fall asleep they would hear you speak they would sense your love pouring over them that they would feel your obsession for them god thank you for being so incredible as we leave today may we endeavor to relationally draw nearer to you and take our conversation with you to all new depths in christ's name we pray amen amen

Channel: Gateway Church

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Keywords: Preston, Morrison, gateway, church, gateway church, scottsdale, tempe, gateway church sermons, church online, arizona church, arizona churches, scottsdale churches, phoenix churches, gateway people, gateway life, Preston Morrison, Robert Morris, Pastor Robert Morris, Pastor Preston Morrison, Preston Morrison sermons, church sermons, Prayer, Sermons on Prayer, How to Pray, What is prayer, messages on prayer, perfect Time to pray, When to pray, When do i pray, How do i pray

Id: AeQ-94xpIrM

Length: 47min 0sec (2820 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 05 2021